When home birth goes badly wrong: one mum’s story

For mum-to-be Claire, a home birth seemed like the most natural option. Unfortunately, it wasn't to be and in the end, both she and her son were lucky to survive the ordeal. She told her story to Margaret Rafferty.

Home births can be great. In some parts of the world they are the norm and even in many Western countries – like the Netherlands, where one in three babies are born at home – they are a lot more common than they are in Australia.

They’re also a lot less expensive than here in Australia, where they can cost between $3000 and $5000 because, unlike giving birth in a public hospital, most women seeking a home birth will have to bear the expense of a private midwife.

With all of these factors at play, it’s perhaps not surprising that fewer than one half of one percent of women in Australia choose a home birth. And, unfortunately, when stories like this emerge, it only makes women more reluctant to choose the home birth option. Which is a pity, because for many a home birth is an empowering, tranquil experience that results in better health for both mother and baby.

Unfortunately, that wasn’t the experience that Claire had when she chose a home birth for the birth of her first child. Claire contacted Kidspot after reading about the home birth with midwife Akal that we described in this story. Having had firsthand experience of Akal’s approach to her practice, she wanted to share her story.

Claire’s story

“I’m English and in the UK and other parts of Europe home births are much more prevalent. Even those who give birth in hospital will nearly always be seen by a team of midwives, rather than a doctor, so it’s all a much more midwife-led process.

“Here in Australia, I found a very different system and quickly realised that home birth is much more unusual here. Despite that, I knew I wanted one, though I found in Sydney there were only limited options for home birth midwives and they were often very busy.

“That was a bit of a hurdle and it made it difficult to find a midwife, however find one I did – Akal. I went and spoke to her, explained what I was after, and she seemed to understand what I wanted.

“Akal operated out of her home. She had a room attached to her home and I expected that, but my first impression was that it was all very old-fashioned. She was an older lady, very old-school with no modern equipment as such. That was OK with me, because I thought birth was fairly natural and didn’t think it needed a lot of medical intervention.

“The care I received all seemed pretty normal and through the pregnancy I wasn’t overly concerned.”

Understanding the risks

“I did go into it with my eyes open. I knew from research that midwives weren’t able to get insurance and this raised a small question mark in my mind, but I kind of ignored that.

“I also ignored my mum, who tried to talk me out of home birth. She said, ‘I had three difficult births. I imagine you’ll have a difficult birth. I’d really prefer you not to have a home birth,’ but I chose not to listen to her.

“By the time labour began I was 10 days overdue so I already had concerns that nothing was happening. Then I started to get contractions and Akal arrived and my mum was there, but everything progressed incredibly slowly. That worried my mum more than me initially, mainly because I had no previous experience to go on. For four days my contractions were coming and going and Akal was in charge during this time. She was telling me things were progressing and I did eventually get to the stage where I had the urge to push.

“At this point I would have expected things to speed up but they didn’t. I ended up spending 12 hours pushing – that was after the previous four days of not sleeping much, or eating much, so I was anxious and stressed.

“Akal kept encouraging me but giving me false encouragement, saying things like, ‘Yes, I can see the baby’s head,’ and, ‘It’s not going to be long, you’re fully dilated, you just need to push the baby out’.”

“Of course when someone tells you that, you believe it. I found out later that she couldn’t see the baby’s head at all.”

Point of utter exhaustion

“After four days of labour and 12 hours of pushing I got to the point where I was utterly exhausted.

“I begged for an ambulance and Akal kept saying no, insisting I could do it. In the end my mum stepped in, put me in the car and drove me to the hospital.

“When we got there all hell broke loose. I had doctors shouting at me, ‘Why on earth are you in this state?’.

“I was shocked because I didn’t realise how serious it was until I got there. Akal had given me no indication that anything was wrong, no sign that I should be concerned or that the labour was anything out of the ordinary.

“To make matters worse, at the hospital Akal made herself very scarce, obviously because the doctors were being very hostile towards me and she didn’t want to take any of that blame.”

“At the hospital they told me that my baby’s heart rate had dropped, there was meconium everywhere and clear signs that things weren’t right. My kidneys had failed at that point and they were worried about my other organs. This was because my body was so exhausted that everything was trying to shut down. They had to get the baby out now.

“I was rushed in for an emergency Caesarean and when my son was born he was a good size but he had quite bad bruising around his head where he’d been bashing against my pelvis. Because, despite Akal’s assurances through the labour, it turned out that in actual fact, my pelvic bones hadn’t moved at all and there was no way in hell that the baby was coming out the birth canal. For 12 hours his head was pounding against my pelvic bones.

“The whole thing was just awful.”

Claire’s kidneys failed due to the stress of her prolonged labour. Fortunately, they started again in the days following and she has been lucky to avoid any ongoing issues.

Getting well again

“My kidneys started again in the days after the birth but I had to keep going back for checks (and this was an issue that also needed careful monitoring during future pregnancies).

“I was very, very unwell when I came out of hospital. For the first few months I was very ill, quite depressed and was lucky I had my mum to stay with me for those first months. It took a long time to feel better.

“I didn’t want anything to do with Akal after the birth and she never made any effort to explain. It was as if it was a normal experience, and she’d done everything right. My main focus was to put it behind me and move on. I wanted to be well, I needed to be well and so I just concentrated on that, but in hindsight, I can’t believe Akal could have believed she’d done the right thing.

“I get a bit of a shiver when I look back on the whole experience because I realise both myself and my child came quite close to dying. I count myself very fortunate to be here and I’m lucky that I didn’t experience any lasting health issues from that birth.”